The Trump administration is taking aim at “Big Egg,” alleging that some of the nation’s largest egg producers illegally conspired to drive up consumer prices.The lawsuit, filed by the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division on Tuesday alongside attorneys general from 17 states, names Cal-Maine Foods, Hickman’s Egg Ranch, and Versova Holdings and affiliated companies. Prosecutors allege the companies conspired for years to manipulate industry price benchmarks that influence wholesale egg prices nationwide.According to the complaint, executives from the companies coordinated bidding strategies through text messages, emails, and phone calls to influence price reporting by market publisher Urner Barry, whose benchmark prices are widely used throughout the grocery and restaurant industries.
In one October 2023 text message cited in the complaint, a Cal-Maine executive allegedly told Hickman’s CEO, “We are bidding up. Let’s hold it today.” After the companies submitted coordinated bids, Urner Barry kept its egg price quotation unchanged, prompting the Cal-Maine executive to text, “No change,” according to the lawsuit.The complaint also alleged Hickman’s CEO urged competitors to submit additional bids to influence the benchmark. In one December 2023 email, the executive wrote, “Please consider posting strong bids, early and often,” adding that market reporters would be more likely to raise benchmark prices after observing higher bids from multiple companies.The Justice Department further alleged the companies executed private egg trades at artificially high prices specifically to provide market reporters with transactions supporting higher benchmark prices. In one August 2023 text exchange, a Cal-Maine executive allegedly told a Versova executive that an Urner Barry reporter “needs premium trades to hang her hat on” before negotiating purchases above prevailing market prices.Federal prosecutors said the alleged coordination caused benchmark egg prices to rise to record levels before falling sharply after the companies learned in March 2025 that the Justice Department had opened an investigation and ordered them to preserve documents.The price of eggs spiked in late 2024 into early 2025, driven largely by H5N1 bird flu, which decimated the poultry industry, according to a USDA report.The price is listed below an empty shelf in the egg display in a Walmart store Tuesday, May 13, 2025, in Englewood, Colo. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
